One Thousand Gifts: Day 18, 19, 20, & 21, January 26, 27, 28, & 29, 2012

I am getting sooo behind on my blogging. Goodness gracious, I just realized how many days I've missed. This past weekend was a little chaotic because we had another kiddo in our home for respite care, so I was pretty beat by the end of every day. So, now I'm going to try and catch up. Maybe I can stay on top of this Joy Dare after this. We shall see.

January 26th: a gift before 9am, a gift before noon, and a gift after dark.
1. Before 9am = getting my kiddo to the bus stop on time. Mornings are rough with our kiddo, so it's always a blessing to actually make it to the bus stop on time.
2. Before noon = A good therapy session for my kiddo.
3. After dark = amazing stars. Here's a pic:

January 27, 2012 = 3 gifts that might never have been

1. My son. For so many reason my son might never have been. For one, I didn't really want to have kids until God allowed me to get pregnant and then have a miscarriage. I didn't realize how much I desired to mother a child until then. God used my broken heart for good. He changed me. Two, God broke my heart for foster care, when I couldn't ever see myself doing something like this. And three, my boy was saved from abuse and neglect, and there is no telling what could have happened to him. I am so blessed to have a 7 year old son, even though most days I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.

2. Exercise. I say this because it takes alot of motivation and discipline to consistently exercise. I used to exercise religiously, 6 days a week, sometimes several times a day. Then after my miscarriage, I went into somewhat of a depression, and I quit caring. I quit exercising and eating healthy, and I put on 50lbs in 2 years. Yeah, hardcore. A month after my kiddo moved in with us, I decided I needed to make a change. I need to be a healthy example for him. I started doing Weight Watchers, and I have gotten back into exercising. I've lost 35 of those 50 pounds. Only 15 more to go. I'm working hard to get rid of it. So here's a pic of me after I finished my work-out. Not too pretty, but I got it done!

3. My marriage. Seriously, in high school, my husband was a bit geeky. I didn't like him in a romantic way at all even though he liked me the whole time we were friends. Everyone would tease us saying we were going to get married one day, but I was set on the fact that we would not. I didn't like him like that, and I only wanted to be friends with him. Well, he went off to college, got a little cuter, and he started to pursue me. To my surprise, he won my heart. I adore him, and I say this quite often, but I can't imagine doing life with anyone else. Here is a picture of my husband and me when I was still in high school. We had maybe been dating a year at this point.

January 28, 2012 = 3 graces found in your friends

1. Acceptance

2. Encouragement

3. Accountability

January 29, 2012 = a song heard, a soft word, where you saw light

1. A song heard was "Beautiful Things" by Gungor. My husband and I sang this song together at church tonight. It has been a song that has encouraged me so much in my mess of a life. It's such a blessing to know that God can make beautiful things out of my mess. Here is a link to listen to the song: Beautiful Things

This is my husband and Sunday morning. He was looking super handsome.

2. A soft word, my husband telling me to just cry and let it out. This morning was awful! Our kiddo had one of the worst tantrums, and the little boy we had for respite care had a couple of tantrums at church. It just was not our morning. My husband and I were both to the point of tears. My husband is the most calm and even tempered person I know, and it takes so much to get him so upset, but today was one of those days. He was still such a comfort to me when we were both having such a hard time.

3.Where I saw light, in the eyes of my little boy as he was singing praises to Jesus tonight. He's so precious, and loves Jesus and music. It's funny how we can have such a horrible morning, but then our kid can be so incredibly sweet later that night.

One Thousand Gifts: Day 16 & 17, January 24 & 25, 2012

Okay, so yesterday's gifts were 3 things blue and today's gifts were one grace borrowed, one grace found, and one grace inherited.

3 things blue:

BLUE SKY! We've had so much rain here lately, but the last two days we've had beautiful blue skies, and the temperatures have been in the 60s. We've gotten a little taste of spring, and it's been nice. I would love to have one good snow, but warm temperatures always make me happy.

A Blue Bird: I didn't get a picture of this one, but I went for a run in Lake Lure, and there was the most vibrant and beautiful blue bird that flew over my head. It was so gorgeous, and I was thankful to have witnessed it.

My Blue Car: What a welcomed sight this was after I finished up my run. :) I'm so thankful God provided this vehicle for us. It was given to us by my grandmother during our first year of marriage. We've put over 100,000 miles on it in 5 years, but we love it. She's been good to us minus having a cracked head gasket earlier this year that caused us to have to put a new motor in her. :)

So now on to today, and I'll be caught up! YAY! So, one grace borrowed, one grace found, and one grace inherited.

One grace borrowed: My mom's advice/experience. She's one of the best mentors/counselors, and she was able to give me so wonderful marriage advice that has really helped Eric and me.

One grace found: A new love for my husband

One grace inherited: So these little bowls were given to me by my Granny Jo. I love them! They are even more special to me now that she's gone on to be with the Lord.

One Thousand Gifts: Day 14 & 15, January 22 & 23, 2012

So, I'm like 4 days behind on my blogging. I'm sorry. Life just happens sometimes. I've been trying to keep track of my gifts, some of the days are running together though. So here are my gifts from 4 days ago that I was to look for: one grace wrinkled, one grace smoothed, one grace unfolded.

Just so you know, this photo is edited a little with some skin smoothing. It doesn't show my wrinkles too well, but I promise they are there under my eyes and around my mouth. :)

One grace wrinkled: My face. I know, my face isn't super wrinkled, but I do have some. They are smile lines though, which I think is a gift. It means I smile and laugh alot. I have a hilarious husband, so that means I laugh all the more. Laughing, especially with my husband, is my favorite thing to do, and I think the fact that I'm getting smile lines/wrinkles at only 25 years old is a gift from God. Even though I wouldn't mind having them smoothed out a little. :)

One grace unfolded: So I'm going a little out of order, and this wasn't from 4 days ago, but it was still a grace unfolded. This one was a letter I'd written to my husband. Marriage is hard work, and we don't always get it right, especially me. It's about to get real here. I wrote my husband a letter the other day because I've really been struggling in our marriage. I've been battling my own personal sins, and I had to own up to that and ask my husband to help me. I had to ask him to lead me and pursue me. We've both been kinda slack here recently, and we just had things we needed to deal with. I'm not going to get into the details here, but my husband took my letter, unfolded it, read, and received it with so much grace. Our marriage is stronger for it, and I'm so looking forward to how God is going to continue to grow us closer to Him and closer to each other.

One grace smoothed: This relates to the last one, but my marriage. It was a little bumpy, but it's beginning to smooth out. Anyone who makes you think marriage doesn't take work is a liar. I'm constantly reminding myself that God uses marriage to make us holy. I don't have to be happy in my marriage all the time, but I always have to keep my focus on the Lord. It's not always easy to love my husband, and I know it's not always easy for him to love me (trust me, I'm not the easiest person to live with). That's why marriage can be a wonderful representation of Christ and His church. It's about agape love (unconditional). My husband and I have to choose to love each other through the ugly stuff that sometimes gets in the way. How thankful I am that I have a gracious husband who loves me with all of his heart. I'm one blessed girl.

Okay, now onto January 23rd. This day I was supposed to write about 3 gifts found in Christ. This one I'll keep simple, but that doesn't mean I'm any less thankful for these gifts. I'm overwhelmed when I think of these gifts from my Lord.

1. Grace
2. Forgiveness
3. Reconciliation

One Thousand Gifts: Day 13, January 21, 2012

Today my gifts to look for were: one gift in the sky, one thing from your memory, one thing that's ugly-beautiful.

One gift in the sky: the sun and blue skies that came out at the end of the day. It was so rainy alllll day, but right around sunset the sun came out. It was beautiful. I think my favorite part though was on our drive home from a birthday party. I took a picture using the side mirrors on our car. Here is the picture:

The reason I love it so much is because you see the sun shining and the words "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." That made me think of the Son of God, Jesus because He is closer than He appears quite often. It was a nice little unexpected blessing today.

One thing from my memory: This one I've struggled with today. There are so many thoughts racing through my brain all the time. It's hard to piece something together into one cohesive memory. I guess the memory I'm most thankful for today is the memory of my wedding day. It's one of the sweetest memories I have. My husband and I didn't kiss each other until that day, so after 3 years, 8 months, and 6 days of dating, we finally shared our first kiss in front of God and all of our friends and family. The innocence of our wedding day/night always brings me joy. It always causes me to smile a little and sometimes even laugh. Thankful that God gave Eric and I the grace to stay pure for each other.

One thing that's ugly-beautiful: I can't take a picture of this one, but I would have to say my scars. One of my scars in particular. I have a massive scar that goes from hip bone to hip bone. It's been a part of me since I was 4 years old. Not many people have ever seen it because it's in a place that not many people can see, and for that I am thankful. I don't like it. I think it's ugly, but it's also beautiful because it reminds me of how God has spared my life. I had a kidney/bladder condition that I was born with that required surgery when I was 4. I am thankful for the surgery because it saved my kidneys thus saving my life. My husband is the only man other than doctors and my dad that have seen this scar. It's one of those things I was self-conscious about on the wedding night. :) Who knows what I was worried about because I have an adoring husband. He loves me and thinks I'm the most beautiful woman in the world even with this huge scar. So my ugly-beautiful that I'm thankful for today has to be my scar. Not many people have a reminder like that every day showing them just how fragile life can be and how thankful I should be that I'm alive.

One Thousand Gifts: Day 12, January 20, 2012

So I got a day behind again. Life just happens sometimes. So yesterday I was to look for 3 gifts I only saw when I got close-up. I really enjoyed looking for these. It sparked the photographer in me, and I found numerous gifts that you really had to look hard for. So here they are. I'll try to narrow them down to 3.

3 red berries. I took my puppy for a walk, and these were on a very big bush, but I just happened to bend down for something, and I saw these 3 bright little guys. It was a nice burst of color on this bush. 

Pink flowers blooming in the middle of winter. These were tiny, but they were pretty. Our weather has been pretty bi-polar, so this poor bush doesn't know if it's spring or winter.

I almost missed these patches of bright green. The green moss was on a small tree stump almost covered by leaves. I love finding patches of bright color in the winter if you haven't noticed. It just helps brighten the day a little bit.

A rain drop on a branch, and the reflection is an upside down view of our house. I love seeing reflections through rain drops. You have to look really close to see them, but it gives you a very cool perspective on things.

One Thousand Gifts: Day 11, January 19, 2012

Today has been a wonderful day. The gifts I was to look for today were: a grace in the kitchen, a grace in the weather, a grace that might never have been.

A grace in the kitchen: Pizza. My husband was really sweet and stopped and got pizza on the way home so I wouldn't have to cook night. I love pizza so much! I know it's not good for you, but everything in moderation.

A grace in the weather: So I didn't get a picture of this, but it was sunny today. Very cold, but sunny. We haven't had much sun here recently, so it was great to see the sun peaking up bright over the mountains this morning. It was really a blessing.

A grace that might never have been: So this year, I've made some business goals. One of those goals is to step out of my comfort zone. One of the ways I wanted to do that was learn more about business. I have a friend who also owns his own business, and he told me about a small business conference in Hendersonville, NC that was going on today. My husband couldn't go with me, so I really didn't want to go, but I decided to get over my fears and just do it. My friend also went, and he let me hang out with him all day. I had such a great time, and I feel like I've learned some helpful new things. I'm really motivated to work on my photography business now. Thankful my friend thought of me and told me about today or this motivation may never have been.

One Thousand Gifts: Day 10, January 18, 2012

Yesterday's post was supposed to be 3 gifts from God's word. I didn't have time to blog them last night, so here they are from yesterday.

Hebrews 4:14-16, "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." So thankful I have a God who sympathizes with me weakness, who knows me so deeply.

Hebrews 5:7-8, "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." Thankful for a perfect example in Jesus Christ. 

1 Corinthians 1:20 "Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" Thankful for God's wisdom and that He freely gives it to those who seek it.